Four
additional members of Chicago area criminal street gang, the Latin
Dragons Nation, have been charged with racketeering conspiracy and other
related offenses in a second superseding indictment unsealed today,
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II for
the Northern District of Indiana announced.

According to the second superseding indictment, the Latin Dragons
Nation is a criminal street gang that originated in Chicago and spread
to other areas, including the Northern District of Indiana. Members and
associates of the Latin Dragons Nation allegedly engage in acts of
violence, including murder, attempted murder, witness tampering, and
assault, to protect the gang’s territory and drug operations. Latin
Dragons Nation gang members are required by gang rules to take immediate
violent action against anyone who threatens them, and gain respect and
status within the gang by doing so.

Among the various alleged offenses that the second superseding indictment added are:

On or about July 27, 2015, allegedly Gustavo Colunga and Joshua
Harris-White approached Victim #6, a juvenile, whom Gustavo Colunga and
Harris-White believed was a rival gang member. Harris-White held Victim
#6 down, while Gustavo Colunga stabbed Victim #6 in the throat. Both
Gustavo Colunga and Harris-White fled in a vehicle driven by a third
Latin Dragon Nation member.

On or about Nov. 22, 2017, allegedly while Mario Colunga was
driving a vehicle occupied by Ralph Mendez Jr., another Latin Dragon
Nation member and three female associates, Mendez Jr. did a drive-by
shooting in a rival gang neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois.

On or about Aug. 13, 2018, Gustavo Colunga and Joshua Harris-White
sold a Ruger .44 magnum revolver and a quantity of marijuana to an ATF
undercover special agent.

The previously indicted defendants,
charged in this case are Manuel Diaz aka “Smiley,” 27, of Hammond,
Indiana; Eduardo Diaz-Corral aka “Lalo,” 20, of Calumet City, Illinois;
Ralph Mendez Jr. aka “Lil Devious,” 22, of Chicago, Illinois; and Joseph
Roggenkamp aka “Dro,” 21, of East Chicago, Indiana. Diaz-Corral and
Diaz allegedly participated, respectively, in the murders of Paul Cruz
on Nov. 20, 2016, in Chicago, and Charles Berrios on Sept. 30, 2017, in
Hammond, Indiana. These murders and other acts of violence are charged
in this second superseding indictment.

The second superseding indictment is part of ongoing efforts to curb
the activities of violent street gangs in the Northern District of
Indiana.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of
law.

If convicted, any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined
by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and
the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The maximum penalty for murder in
aid of racketeering is death or in the alternative a mandatory life
sentence.

This case is the result of the investigative efforts of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the FBI; the Hammond Police
Department; the East Chicago Police Department; the Merrillville Police
Department; the Hobart Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s
Department along with the Chicago and Calumet City, Illinois Police.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Robert S. Tully of the
Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Joseph A. Cooley and David J. Nozick of the Northern District
of Indiana.